I've written at coffee shops, but prefer the library. My local library actually has a coffee vending machine, so I'm good either way
(Much as I love the current place, I do miss my old stomping ground, which was a hole-in-the-wall cafe where I could get a chicken salad sandwich, a bottomless cup of a coffee, and a dill pickle to make strong men weep. Alas, they closed, and now I must forage for lunch on my own.)
Ok my goal is to write at-least 1,000 words tomorrow in the coffee shop, If I like the atmosphere I will continue, if not I will go home..
Let me know how it goes (although, I think just one attempt might be unfair. It might take a couple of tries to get used to the change of scene...)
Does anyone actual write in coffee shops? What are the pros/cons of coffee shop writing in your opinion? I usually write on a coach in a quiet area. Or early in the morning before other awake. I want to try writing in a local coffee shop this weekend thats why I ask.
But that's what makes coffee shops such WONDERFUL places to write. Pick out someone sitting at another table. Don't stare and be creepy, but how old is she? Where do you think she was just before coming here? At work? At school? Or is she going to work right after this? Is she waiting to meet someone? Do you think she has an accent of some sort? Did she grow up here? Or is she from somewhere else? What do you think her biggest secret is about herself? What do you think the biggest secret she knows about someone else is?
The most productive place for me to write is somewhere where I am alone and cannot access the internet.
I used to write in a coffee shop when I lived closer to one. Some of my most productive writing sessions. At least, until I started getting self-conscious that people would just assume I'm a poseur for writing in a coffee shop. :/
UPDATE!
Well i have been in the coffee shop, ignoring internet , and now i'm 59,000 words!
I'm taking break, then tomarrow I will wake up and return to the coffee shop at 5:30 am! I really like it...
Note my writing is not good here, becuase I'm vomiting up the last scene of my book, but I will shape it with a rewrite I just got to get it out of me first.
UPDATE!
Well i have been in the coffee shop, ignoring internet , and now i'm 59,000 words!
I'm taking break, then tomarrow I will wake up and return to the coffee shop at 5:30 am! I really like it...
As for people staring over my shoulder (which never happened), I was fully prepared to launch into full pornographic mode and write the raunchiest sex scene I could possibly come up with. They'd either be intrigued or glance away, embarrassed. I would have banked on embarrassed and it would have neatly solved the issue. Never had the chance to put that in action.
The biggest con, of course, is having to PEE so damned much. Coffee being a diuretic will go that to ya. And maaaaaaaan I never seem to learn the lesson, what with my venti-sized cup of "haha you know this needs to come out at one point right". And now we've ventured into the land of TMI. Be sure to purchase a souvenir on your way out